According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there were 2,798 opioid-related deaths in the state of Florida as a result of an overdose in 2016. This was 46.3% higher than the previous year indicating that opioid dependency and overdoses are still growing.

After I retired in 2001, my wife, Nancy, and I began to live our dream life in the Bahamas. Both of us were in good health and somewhat oblivious to what our future medical needs might be. We assumed that if we ever needed serious medical help, we would return home to Pennsylvania and our medical comfort zone. That was until we met the team at Jupiter Medical Center.

For the past 15 years, the South Florida Healthcare Executive Forum (SFHEF) has been enabling students to learn more about how the industry works by providing them with a real-life opportunity to delve into a healthcare case study. While top teams win monetary prizes, the benefits extend far beyond that award.

Yes, that’s what you get for a 14th anniversary celebration and that’s what those of us at South Florida HospitalNews & Healthcare Report are celebrating with this July 2018 issue. Can you believe you’ve been putting up with me (for some reason, no one ever minds “putting up” with Carol) for 14 years?

Written By Howard Wolkowitz, Financial Advisor at Coastal Wealth, a Member of the MassMutual & Author, The Health of Your Wealth

Issues such as career decisions, cash flow management, trade offs between short and long term decisions and behavior characteristics can impact your financial goals. Assessing risk tolerance, portfolio decisions, income tax trade offs, effective insurance design and implementation can impact your quality of life and peace of mind.

Wellington Regional Medical Center formed an opioid task force in the hospital last fall "for obvious reasons," according to Dr. Richard Hays, Chief Medical Officer. Leading those obvious reasons is the fact that the opioid problem is "a national crisis, and everyone is looking for ways to deal with it."

Stevenson Chery, a Haitian student who attended undergraduate college at the University of Florida, graduate school at the University of Central Florida and medical school at Florida International University, was recently awarded the 2018 VITAS Healthcare Scholarship.

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP and Broad and Cassel LLP announced today that both partnerships have approved an agreement to combine effective August 1, 2018, to be known in Florida as Nelson Mullins Broad and Cassel.

Both firms’ partnerships voted overwhelmingly to approve the combination, which will create a firm with over 725 attorneys and professionals operating in 25 offices across 11 states and the District of Columbia.

School is out, the extra-curricular activities are over for the year and everyone is looking forward to a slower schedule during the summer months. Most families contemplating a divorce tend to put things on hold during the summer while the children are around and not occupied with their regular activities and lives.